Katelyn Jetelina, Ph.D., MPH, is our kind of public health.
As an epidemiologist, she examines patterns and causes of diseases in public health (e.g. covid), and she is very passionate to share evidence -based information with everyone interested.
Your free weekly newsletter, your local epidemiologist, breaks off complicated facts for public health in a friendly, easy -to -understand way. She founded the newsletter during Covid and it quickly became a contact point for reliable information during pandemic. Today, around 230,000 people in 100 countries subscribe to their local epidemiologists and Time Magazine, named Jetelina, one of the 100 most influential people in the healthcare system in 2024.
Since Covid, Jetelina’s newsletter has developed on various public health issues, including nutrition and new research. Here is our interview with Jetelina and her thoughts on bird flu and the new guidelines for what is considered a “healthy” food.
Our interview follows, edited for clarity and length.
Healthy women: On your website it says: “During the day I wear a lot of hats, including scientific consultants, to a number of organizations, including the CDC. I write this newsletter at night. “Why is it important to you to bring out this newsletter?
Dr. Jetelina: I came across this newsletter during the pandemic – and I didn’t think it had to be done for a long time, but here I am five years later and it still lives well – and it fills a massive gap.
I mean there are not enough people who react to concerns on site, and there is a lot of confusion and questions that have to be answered promptly and understandably. And so I explore this room.
Read: 15 minutes with: Kizzmekia S Corbett, Ph.D., Talks about Omicron >>
Healthy women: We know that you are working on getting the facts about why vaccines are so important. What do you want to say people who still have concerns about the Covid vaccine?
Dr. Jetelina: I think that there are more questions about vaccines -even about Covid -when we enter this new era in US policy, and I think it’s okay to have questions. I want people to have questions. But what I am most concerned with are people who receive evidence -based information. What we know from the vaccines on the market is that they are far more secure than getting the disease themselves – be it covid or measles or gasps – they call it. Vaccines are the best tool that we have in our toolkit to live a healthy and wealthy life.
Healthy women: We are in the middle of flu, RSV and Covid season. Is it too late to be vaccinated now (ask for a friend)?
Dr. Jetelina: We are currently at the peak of the airways and it is actually not too late to be vaccinated. If we reach a climax now or next week, we also have to go down the wave, and the flu is notorious that they are pulled out because different tribes later dominate in spring.
So, no, it’s not too late to be vaccinated – especially for flu and covid.
Read: Is it covid, RSV or flu? >>
Healthy women: At the beginning of this year, a person in Louisiana died of the H5N1 bird flu. How concerned should we deal with bird flu?
Dr. Jetelina: You should be careful for the average American, but it is not fifth emergency like Covid. And there are not many people who can, right? Don’t drink a pasteurized milk. Do not touch wild birds and animals that look sick. At the moment it is not an emergency and the risk is certainly not uniform. [Editor’s Note: People who come in contact with birds, poultry and livestock have the most risk of exposure.]
Healthy women: Can you talk a little about the role of American nutrition in chronic diseases, especially in women?
Dr. Jetelina: Diet is incredibly important to keep us healthy. It is one of the things that help with our immune systems and a nutritional, balanced diet is one of the things we can do for our health.
Healthy women: In a recently published newsletter, you mentioned that a company will have to prove two things from February if a company wants to say that its food product is “healthy”: the food contains a certain amount of one of the five food groups, and the food can be able to T exceed additional sugar, sodium or saturated fat boundaries based on food and the usually consumed quantities. What do you think about the change and do you think that it affects what people think is healthy?
Dr. Jetelina: It can. I think there are many different levers that can be pulled. For example, behavior levers such as a warning system for food such as cigarette packs in training with regard to what nutrient -rich food is and what is not helpful.
It is very confusing for many people out there. I think what I am most excited about are the indirect levers that we will have for companies: to develop it better and to develop and distribute it better. And so I think that it will be an indirect instrument to hold companies and industry into account.
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